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Edsel

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  1. Edsel
    Upcoming Elections in The Republic of Flanders


     

    It is the start of the campaign season in Flanders. According to a recent poll conducted by Ghent University, the Flemish people have become much more leftist since the 1997 elections. Support for The Liberal Socialist Party has also increased; therefore, it is almost certain that they will win the plurality of the votes this election. The people of Flanders are really looking forward to this election.
     
    There are seven major political parties. Below are all of the official positions of the seven major parties on a few issues.
     
    Dutch Nationalist Party

     
    Conservative Party

     
    Classical Liberal Party

     
    Moderate Party

     
    Liberal Socialist Party

     
    Marxist-Leninist Party

     
    Green Party

     
    Article by: James Wilson, Damiaan Albers, and Margreet Koeman
    Published January 27th, 1999 Orbis Time
    Flanders Broadcasting Corporation - 41 Leopoldstraat Antwerp, Flanders
  2. Edsel

    Bruges Becomes a City

    By Edsel,

    The Town of Bruges Gained Official City Status


     

    On September 19th, 1998, the population of the town of Bruges surpassed 10,000, making it a city under Flemish law. Bruges is the capital and largest city in the province of West Flanders. It's has a well-preserved, historic old-city with many canals, narrow streets, beautiful medieval buildings, elegant squares, and amazing museums. An enormous amount of tourists flock to the beautiful city every year. Bruges is also one of the country's chief industrial centers. The metropolitan area includes one of the largest and fastest growing seaports in Flanders, and it is the only major port in the country on the North Sea. The Flemish Government hopes that the city Bruges will continue to grow and prosper in the future as more and more people move to the city.
     



    Tourists in the city's market square


     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     





    An iconic view of one of the city's canals with the Belfry of Bruges in the background


     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     





    The Belfry of Bruges on the other side of the market square


     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     





    Container ship being loaded in The Port of Bruges-Zeebrugge, outside of the city


     
     
     

    Article by: James Wilson, Hilary van Dijk, and Margreet Alvera
    Published September 29th 1998 Orbis Time
    Flanders Broadcasting Corporation - 41 Leopoldstraat Antwerp, Flanders
  3. Edsel

    RFNN is now FBC

    By Edsel,

    The Republic of Flanders News Network has recently changed its name to Flanders Broadcasting Corporation in order to make the news organization's initialism more distinguishable. The initialism RFNN was deamed too similar to the initialisms KNN and RNN used by other news networks and had to be changed.
  4. Edsel
    Controversy Over the Construction of a Nuclear Power Plant in Antwerp


     

    Two years ago, The Flemish Parliament voted on legislation to build the nation's first nuclear power station, in the Flemish capital. The results of the vote were 117-for and 83-against. After many months of construction, the nuclear power plant in Antwerp has been completed, but there is still a huge amount of disagreement over whether the new power plant will help or hurt to people of Flanders.
     
    The Liberal Socialists and The Moderate Party agree the power plant will benefit the people, partially because it produces no CO2 and releases no pollutants into the air, thus reducing the country's carbon dioxideemissions and improving air quality in the surrounding suburbs. Also, despite the high costs of the construction and operation of the power station, it will actually save the government money in the long run because exchanging the two coal power stations for one nuclear power station will free up more coal to be exported and more land for commercial buildings. Most Flemings also agree with the Liberal Socialist and Moderate parties. According to a poll conducted by scientists at The University of Antwerp, 81% of Flemings think that the construction of the nuclear power station a good thing for the people of Flanders.
     
    Meanwhile, The Conservative Party thinks the nuclear power plant is a terrible thing for Antwerp and Flanders. The Conservatives think that global warming doesn't exist and that Flanders should use more coal to power it's cities. They also deny that sulfur dioxide, carbon monoxide, and particulate matter emitted from coal-fired power stations has any negative effect on human health. Secondly, they think that replacing the coal power plants with the nuclear power plant took away jobs, despite the fact the the nuclear power plant has 110 workers, while each of the two coal plants only had 40 workers.
     
    Interestingly, The Green Party is actually divided on the issue. Some Green Party members think that the nuclear power station is great because it will lead to fewer carbon dioxideemissions and better air quality, but others think that the nuclear power station is terrible for the welfare of the Flemish people because the nuclear wastes that is produces could cause significant damage to the environment if they are not handled properly.
     



    New nuclear power station outside of Antwerp


     
     
     

    Article by: James Wilson, Damiaan Albers, and Margreet Koeman
    Published June 3rd, 1988 Orbis Time
    Republic of Flanders News Network - 41 Leopoldstraat Antwerp, Flanders
  5. Edsel
    Republic of Flanders Decides to Increase it's Military Strength


     

    After a minor raid this morning on the capital city of Antwerp (by the nation Drakia, in the alliance Arrgh) The government of Flanders agrees that the size of the Flemish military should be greatly increased. All of Parliament agrees that increasing the size of the country's military won't make the country strong enough to defeat most raiders, but that it will deter potential raiders from attacking the nation. They plan to increase the size of the military from 18,000 soldiers to 36,000 soldiers and from 50 tanks to 250 tanks. Unfortunately, this large increase in the size of the nation's military will as have negative effects on Flanders' economy, as military upkeep costs would would increase by 130%; However, most members of parliament agree that the benefits would outweigh the costs.
     
    The government of Flanders is also currently debating over whether they should institute compulsory military service. All members of the Conservative Party and about half of Moderate Party members think that the country should have compulsory military service to ensure that there are not any vacant military positions, even though 42,000 people signed-up for the Flemish military and were rejected due to lack of vacancies this year. On the other hand, the Liberal Socialist Party and Classical Liberal Party agree that it is unnecessary for Flanders to have compulsory military service because there are many people who want to join the military who can't due to the lack of vacancies who would definitely join the Flemish military if there were open positions. Both parties also think that people who would be forced to fight in the military would not be good soldiers because they would only be fighting because it would be compulsory, and not because they actually wanted to fight.
     
    The government of Flanders hopes that this increase in the size of the nation's military will decrease the amount of raids on the country in the near future.
     
     
     
     
     
    Article by: James Wilson, Hilary van Dijk, and Haans Goossens
    Published May 9th 1998 Orbis Time
    Republic of Flanders News Network - 41 Leopoldstraat Antwerp, Flanders
  6. Edsel
    The United Federation Declares War Against Flanders


     

    The United Federation, a member of the North American Confederacy, declared war against Flanders. The nation's reason for declaring war on the Republic of Flanders was, " I need your resources." This is ridiculous considering the fact that Flanders has no resources besides a bit of coal, food, and lead. The United Federation only attacked the country once with ten ships to place a naval blockade on the country. Luckily, they only destroyed 20 infrastructure in the Capital, Antwerp. The Republic of Flanders, being a peaceful state, offered peace almost immediately once we were notified of the attack, and we did not fight back.
     


     
     
     

    This is a picture of the destruction in Antwerp. Only a few buildings in Antwerp near the banks of the River Scheldt were destroyed.
     
     
     


     

    The Flemish government hopes that there aren't any more attacks. The city of Antwerp plans to completely restore the buildings that were destroyed in the attack. Unfortunately, ten people died in the attack and four more were injured. If the United Federation attacks the country again, the government of Flanders will be forced to take military action.
  7. Edsel
    Surprising Results of December 1997 Elections


     

    The 1997 elections took place on December 24th, and the results were somewhat surprising. Everyone expected the Liberal Socialist Party to win the plurality of the votes (32.5 percent), but no one expected an increase in the number of Conservative Party voters in this election. Until now, the general consensus among experts that the political views of Flemish citizens was shifting to the left, as in the 1992 elections there was a significant increase in the amount of people voting for the Liberal Socialist and Marxist-Leninist parties. However, the percentage of people who voted for the Liberal Socialists decreased from 36 percent to 32.5 percent, and the percentage of people who voted for the Marxist-Leninists decreased from 10.5 percent to only 2 percent. The Moderate Party also experienced a drop in its percent of the vote. The Moderates used to be the second most popular party, and they are now only the third.
     
    The Increase in conservative political views among the the Flemish population is believed to be partially caused by the increase in people following Christianity. The amount of people who are part of the Catholic Church in the country has increased from six percent to eleven percent since 1990. Also, in this election, most Conservative Party voters were white. About 86% of Conservative Party voters were white as apposed to 63% of the county's general population. Researchers think that this is because the conservative party is very anti-immigrant, and with a large influx in immigration in the last couple years, many xenophobic Flemish, Dutch, and English voters have begun to vote for The Conservative Party instead of the Moderates or the Liberal Socialists because they know that the Conservatives will attempt to stop immigration from Asia and Africa. In the last election, there were similar amounts of whites and non-whites who voted for The Conservative Party and the number of non-white Conservative Party voters has not increased between last election and this election.
     
    Despite the Conservative Party's large increase in popularity in the recent election, The Liberal Socialist Party is still the largest party in Parliament. The Liberal Socialists have formed a coalition with the Moderate Party and, surprisingly, The Classical Liberal Party. In the past, The Liberal Socialists have only teamed up with the Moderates; however, in this election they had to add another Party to their coalition to avoid forfeiting control of the parliament to the Conservatives, as the amount of people who decided to vote for the Moderates this year has decreased significantly. Because the Liberal Socialist have teamed up with the Classical Liberals, many people are afraid that necessary healthcare reform laws will not pass, as the Classical Liberals want to decrease government spending on healthcare, and privatize the healthcare system.
     
    Despite of all of the difficulties with the results of this year's election, Prime Minister Edsel assures the Flemish people that The Republic of Flanders will continue to grow and prosper in the years to come.
     
     
     
    Election Results:
    Liberal Socialist Party: 32.5%
    Conservative Party: 26%
    Moderate Party: 13%
    Classical Liberal Party: 11.5%
    Dutch Nationalist Party: 9%
    Marxist-Leninist Party: 2%
    Green Party: 1.5%
    Other: 4.5%
     
     
     
    Article by: James Wilson, Damiaan Albers, and Margreet Koeman
    Published December 26th 1997 Orbis Time
    Republic of Flanders News Network - 41 Leopoldstraat Antwerp, Flanders
  8. Edsel

    Attack on The Republic

    By Edsel,

    Raid on The Republic of Flanders by Two Arrgh Members


     

    Today, there were raids on The Socialist Republic of Flanders by The Dominion of Drakia, who raids the country regularly, and Westwood Kingdom. Both the Flemish capital, Antwerp, and Ghent, the country's second largest city, were damaged in the attacks. The amount of civilians who died in the raids is unknown. Luckily, Vladimir Zhogin of Khevin was able to provide $900,000 in aid to Flanders, and both Antwerp and Ghent have been rebuilt. The Flemish Government is very thankful for the money given to them by President Zhogin, and are going to erect a statue of him in Antwerp's market square in his honor.
     





    A fire in Antwerp started by Drakian soldiers during the raids


     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     

    Nuclear Power Station Built in Ghent


     

    A nuclear power plant was built in Ghent yesterday, and it is the second nuclear power station to have been built in The Republic of Flanders. The power plant is a symbol of the republic's transition from burning coal to provide electricity, to using cleaner nuclear energy. The Flemish Government plans to build many more nuclear power plants in other cities in the near future.
     





    Photograph of new nuclear power station in the suburbs of Ghent


     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     

    Flanders Builds Its First Two Air Force Bases


     

    Flanders has built its first air force bases in the cities of Maastricht and Oostende. The air force bases are very modest, and were built simply by expanding existing airports in the two cities, but they are both important steps towards building a larger air force. The Flemish Armed Forces currently has only seven planes, but plans to build more.
     


    One of the new planes in The Flemish Military

     
     
     

    Article by: James Wilson, Hilary van Dijk, and Leopold Verhoeven
    Published December 8th 1998 Orbis Time
    Flanders Broadcasting Corporation - 41 Leopoldstraat Antwerp, Flanders
  9. Edsel
    Health Care Reform Bill Passed in Parliament


     
    A new health care reform bill was passed in the Flemish Parliament by a vote of 103 to 97. This health care reform bill was not only very important both to the Flemish People but also to The Liberal Socialist Party. If the health care reform is a success, it will definitely help the Liberal Socialists in the next election.
     


    The bill was heavily opposed by The Flemish Conservative Party. The Conservatives claimed that bill would cause doctors to move to other countries for higher pay because their salaries would be greatly reduced by the new bill. However, the bill guarantees that doctors will be paid about the average doctor's salary before the bill was passed, depending on the type of doctor they are. Also, according to a study by scientists at Ghent University, the new health care reform bill would also not increase wait times for doctor's visits, surgeries, or other medical procedures. Lastly, according a poll of Flemish citizens by the government, 76% of Flemish people supported the new health care legislation.


     


    The main reason that the Flemish people wanted health care reform was that 17% of Flemings could not afford health insurance. Also, before this law was passed, there were many people in the country that owed hospitals or doctors, thousands of dollars for surgeries, cancer treatments, pharmaceutical drugs, or a hospital stay. The new system will make health care entirely controlled by the state. The government will nationalize all hospitals and pay for all health care costs using national income taxes. Therefore, this new law will ensure that the Flemish people all have equal access to affordable health care.


     




    ZNA Stuivenberg, a hospital in Antwerp


     
     
     
     
     

    Article by: James Wilson, Damiaan Albers, and Margreet Koeman
    Published January 27th, 1999 Orbis Time
    Flanders Broadcasting Corporation - 41 Leopoldstraat Antwerp, Flanders
  10. Edsel
    The United Federation Launches Additional Attacks Against Flanders


     

    The United Federation, a member of the North American Confederacy, launched three ground attacks against The Republic of Flanders this morning. The results of this attack were devastating and resulted in the deaths of an estimated 10,000 civilians, all in Antwerp, and 18,000 soldiers in our small country of only 285,000 people. Luckily only Antwerp was damaged. The United Federation soldiers raided the National Treasury and stole about $265,300. The United Federation also forced the Flemish government to pay them 35 tons of coal and 150 tons of food. Luckily, our country wasn't stockpiling many resources at the time, so they weren't able to take much. Near one-eighth on the capital was destroyed in the attack. Many neighborhoods in Antwerp have been reduced to rubble, especially on the south side of the city. there is also minor war damage all across the city. Below are some pictures of the damage.
     






    Two buildings collapsed in the neighborhood of Sint-Andries (just south of the city center) after a UF tank fired a round at the buildings.


     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     





    The United Federation Army decimated this suburb south of Antwerp.


     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     





    Large parts of Zuid, a beautiful area of Antwerp in the south of the city, were destroyed in the attacks.


     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     





    Bullet holes in an apartment building in one of Antwerp's suburbs


     
     
     
     
     

    Luckily, The Government of Flanders was able to get a loan to help rebuild the city. Much of the city destroyed in the attacks is already rebuilt.
     
     
     

    We also asked the Prime Minister what he thinks about the attacks and The United Federation. He responded," I think that the attacks in Antwerp were absolutely devastating. I can't believe anyone would kill so many innocent people for only a small amount of money, coal, and food. The United Federation is a terrible nation that is only able to support it's self because of the a huge amounts of donations from it's alliance that it receives regularly. The country produces no resources. It's cities have no coal mines, steel mills, or banks, only countless barracks and military bases solely for the purpose of raiding helpless beginner's nations. It is a shame that such a terrible nation exists in the world of Orbis."


     
     
     
     
     
    Article by: James Wilson, Hilary van Dijk, and Margreet Alvera
    Published March 10th 1998 Orbis Time
    Republic of Flanders News Network - 41 Leopoldstraat Antwerp, Flanders
  11. Edsel
    Maastricht is Now a City


     

    Maastricht has recently been awarded city status. In the Republic of Flanders, a town must have at least 10,000 residents to become a city, and Maastricht just passed that threshold. The city is the capital of Limburg province and has a strong coal mining industry, and the area around it contains vast amounts of natural resources including coal and iron. The city is an ancient settlement that existed during Roman times. Maastricht is growing at an exponential rate, and it currently has a population of about 37,000 people. Maastricht is expected to become a very important industrial and commercial city in the future.
     


     
     
     
     
     
     
     

    Anti-Gentrification Law Passed in Antwerp


     

    Antwerp's city council passed a law yesterday that allows the municipal government to control rent prices in the city, and it prevents people from buying a house in the city if they are not a citizen or permanent resident of Flanders. The law was passed as a response to a protest in Antwerp over increasing housing costs, as a large amount of wealthy business people from The Netherlands and Rhine-Rhur region of Germany are buying vacation houses in the city. Many people in the city say that some of the city's streets have become almost abandoned because most of these rich foreigners only visit the Antwerp a few times each year. Many people have been evicted from their houses and had to move to another city, but with this new law, all working Antwerpians will be able to afford to live in the city once again.
     


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